Wednesday, December 17, 2014

chega de saudade

João Gilberto defined the new style samba with this luxurious expression of profound longing. Born in 1931 in Juazeiro, Bahia in in the northeastern Brazil, Gilberto was given his first guitar at the age of fourteen by his grandfather. He led a group in high school that was influenced by swing jazz, opera, and Brazilian pop. He moved to the city of Salvador where radio performances led to an invitation for his to join the vocal group Garotos da Lua (Moon Boys) in Rio de Janeiro. The group kicked him out after a year because he would often skip practices or turn up late. He is featured on two singles released by the group on the Todamerica lable in 1951: Quando Você Recordar/Amar é Bom and Anjo Cruel/ Sem Ela. He released a single under his own name the next year (Quando Ela Sai/Meia Luz on the Copacabana label) only to spend the next several years drifting with no fixed address, staying with friends, and falling prey to chronic depression. Singer Luiz Telles took him to Porto Alegre in southern Brazil where he regained his confidence. It was while staying with his sister in Diamantina in the state of Minas Gerai that he developed a new style of singing and playing that transformed traditional samba into something more intimate and melodic. Around this time, his father had him committed to a mental institution due to concern over his lifestyle and strange manner of singing. He was released after a week.